San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers has never been shy about displaying how he feels about a given situation during a game, but he tends to be at his coolest when things are going well for his team.

Mix together all those game-day bellies, though, and they couldn’t match the fire that roars inside quarterback Philip Rivers.

“He’s one of the most emotional players you’ll ever see on a football field,” Jammer said. “Some people don’t like that he shows so much emotion, but he is the heart and soul of that Chargers team. He talks. It’s fun. It’s a game. And he plays it the way you should play.”

Jammer was a Charger for 11 years and a teammate of Rivers’ for nine. Now a backup cornerback with the Broncos, Jammer is getting ready to play against his former teammate for the third time this season. The Peyton Manning-guided Broncos will meet the Rivers-inspired Chargers on Sunday afternoon in a second-round AFC divisional playoff game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

The quarterbacks have met twice before in the playoffs — in the 2007 and 2008 seasons when Manning was quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. Rivers and the Chargers were large underdogs both times, and won both games. This time the No. 6-seeded Chargers are 9½-point underdogs against the No. 1-seeded Broncos.

“I think there’s probably a slim-to-zero percent chance that Peyton and I will be on the field at the same time,” Rivers said, laughing during his conference call with the Denver media Wednesday. “I know that quarterbacks get tied to playing one another, but myself and our offense have got our work cut out for (us), and I know Peyton is focused on our defense. It’s not me vs. him by any means, and this is a new team and he’s in a new place, new deal.”

Manning plays with calculated precision. He’ll show annoyance when the calculation goes awry, but when all goes well, the TV cameras will be lucky if they get a fist bump.

Rivers is all heart and facial expressions. He led all NFL quarterbacks this season in smirks, scolds, chuckles and a 49.4 percent third-down conversion rate.

And isn’t it better for friend and foe to have Public Enemy No. 1 back on his game? Rivers has been Broncos fans’ most hated quarterback since a final-game, trash-talking episode involving then-Denver quarterback Jay Cutler in 2007.

But getting all riled up at Rivers the previous two seasons was wasted energy as he threw 35 interceptions and lost to Tim Tebow and twice to Manning. The word was Rivers was lost, maybe injured, broken to the point he needed to be fixed.

“I understood what everybody was trying to put out there,” said Phil Simms, the former NFL quarterback and NFL analyst in a CBS conference call this week. “I did have some questions myself. I did.

“But his charisma, his leadership, his energy are second to none. He and Peyton Manning are almost the same guy. And this offense (that the Chargers) do now, it fits him perfectly.

“He just knows how to play his part in the game. And what greater example do you need than last week? Sixteen throws, he’s one of the few guys who cannot throw it a lot, still stay in rhythm, still do his job when he’s called upon. That’s pretty rare for quarterbacks nowadays. Because most quarterbacks need 40 throws to get their thing going. Philip Rivers can do it with 16 or he can do it with 40.”

Simms was referring to Rivers’ performance in the Chargers’ first-round playoff victory Sunday at Cincinnati. Rivers completed 12-of-16 for 128 yards in a throwback stat line to the 1970s. Yet, Rivers also guided his team to a convincing 27-10 victory against the heavily favored Bengals.

That game showed how far Rivers, and the Chargers, have come under first-year coach Mike McCoy, who in the four previous seasons served as the Broncos’ offensive coordinator.

In two previous seasons, when he threw all those interceptions, Rivers was forcing throws in an attempt to carry his otherwise limited team. The 12-of-16 performance shows that with a formidable running game, an adjusted offensive line and an improved defense, Rivers can let the game come to him. And it often doesn’t call on him until third down.

“We’ve been very high percentage passing all year long,” Rivers said. “I’ve tried to continue to remind myself throw completions, throw completions. Let our guys catch it and run with it and just keep getting first downs.

“So to answer your question, sometimes in the past few years, yes, I did try to do a little too much. Yes, sometimes in the last nine years of my career, there are times when all of us quarterbacks try to do too much. You do it with the right intention, but it’s not what’s best for your team. You’re doing it with the will to want to help the team win, but in some situations it’s not what’s best.”

Mike Klis was with The Denver Post from Jan. 1, 1998, before leaving in 2015 to join KUSA 9News. He covered the Rockies and Major League Baseball until the 2005 All-Star break, when he was asked to start covering the Broncos.

After watching Air Force kick the CU Buffaloes’ tail, not to mention their undefeated record, into the wild, blue yonder, here’s a legitimate question: How in the world is the Pac-12 recognized as a Power Five football conference?